OpenDNS : Change DNS server to Improve Internet Speed

When ever we need fast Internet connection, we usually opt for a broadband connection which offers higher speed and it’s a good practice. Though, very few people are aware of the fact that at times, even using Faster broadband connection you might not get great speed. Specially, in the case when you are browsing or using torrents. This usually happens because of DNS (Domain name system) provided by your ISP. One, easy way to get rid of this scenerio is by using Public DNS servers like OpenDNS or Google DNS. We have also, talked about DNS benchmark which let you test which DNS will help you to improve internet speed and today, we will look into open DNS.

What is OpenDNS:

Open DNS is a service which offers free and premium DNS for any organization or individual to enhance security. Their prmium DNS helps you to load pages faster and also avoid loading malicious pages. Open DNS comes with many features like, Domain blocking, typo correction, secure DNS and offers botnet protection.

In simple word, if you are using default DNS provided by your ISP, you should switch to Open DNS and give it a shot. I have been using it on my computer from long time and at time I try Google DNS too, when I change location. Specially, from an individual perspective, Open DNS helps in securing your computer by blocking those sites which are malicious in nature. Also, if you are struggling with page loading failed issue or opening a web page take ages, despite of broadband connection, using Open DNS will solve your problem. They maintain a big chunk of DNS cache, which helps in faster query and helps in improving internet speed.

Ex: Just to give you an overview DNS do name resolution, that is when you type www.shoutmeloud.com It resolves the website name into the server IP address and that’s how site opens at your end.But sometime the DNS provided by your ISP couldn’t do name resolution effectively because of low cache size and the server is not powerful enough to take care of all the queries and that’s the reason you face the website could not be found error message.

You can come over this problem by using Open DNS. According to wiki page an Open DNS is DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to there Internet service provider ISP. The open DNS is fast because there servers are located at major location and they maintain large size of domain name cache.

Open DNS offers premium and free service and for normal home user like you and me, free DNS I.P is good enough. Here are current open DNS I.P, which you can use and change your DNS settings to them:

208.67.222.222

208.67.220.220

Use this DNS address to speed your internet. Enter these DNS address in your network connection settings as shown in the image:

Well, as I mentioned it works best with Certain ISP which DNS is not that strong and failed to load pages most of the time. I’m an Airtel broadband user, but I prefer to use OpenDNS instead of using default Airtel DNS. You can learn more about them on official openDNS site.

Do let us know, if using public DNS servers, helped you to boost speed of your internet connection?

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A blog scientist by the mind and a passionate blogger by heart ❤️. Fountainhead of ShoutMeLoud (Award winning blog), speaker at various international forums.
Life motto: Live while you can! Teach & inspire while you could & Smile while you have the teeth.

Now that Google public DNS is available…which one do u prefer??do u have any info on what will be the effect of location of these servers, i mean distance from india, on the response time??thinking on these lines which is faster??

Thanks a lot Harsh once again! Actually i was facing DNS issue with ISP since last two days. and my site donot shows any page. I think my site is hacked. after consulting with hosting service provider they are guessing some other problem But atlast your this article and other article how to change DNS setting resolve the problem.
Many Many thanks for great easy to understand article.